Following the triumphant launch and landing of its current New Glenn rocket, Blue Origin has unveiled plans for a series of significant upgrades. On November 20th, the company announced enhancements aimed at boosting the vehicle's performance. These include increasing the thrust of the engines and implementing design improvements.
Specifically, the seven BE-4 engines powering the first stage will see their combined thrust increase from 3.9 million pounds-force to an impressive 4.5 million pounds-force. The two BE-3U engines on the upper stage will also receive a boost, increasing their total thrust from 320,000 to 400,000 pounds-force. According to the company's announcement, "These enhancements will immediately benefit customers already manifested on New Glenn to fly to destinations including low Earth orbit, the moon and beyond."
Beyond the engine upgrades, Blue Origin is also planning other improvements. These include a reusable payload fairing, a redesigned, less expensive lower tank, and a reusable thermal protection system for the booster. The company has not yet provided a detailed timeline for the implementation of these upgrades, stating only that they will be phased in starting with the rocket’s next launch, NG-3, scheduled for early next year.
The impact of the increased thrust and other improvements on the vehicle's payload performance remains unclear. Currently, New Glenn is advertised to carry up to 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit and 13 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit. There has been some speculation that the current design may not achieve these figures. Blue Origin did not address questions regarding the current and projected payload capacity.
In addition to these enhancements, Blue Origin announced a more ambitious upgrade: the New Glenn 9x4. This larger version of the rocket will feature nine BE-4 engines on its first stage and four BE-3U engines on its second stage. It will also be taller and equipped with a larger payload fairing measuring 8.7 meters in diameter, compared to the 7-meter fairing on the current New Glenn 7x2. According to Blue Origin, the New Glenn 9x4 will be capable of placing over 70 metric tons into low Earth orbit and more than 20 metric tons on a translunar injection trajectory. The company did not provide a timeline for when this new version will enter service.
Both versions of New Glenn "will serve the market concurrently, giving customers more launch options for their missions, including megaconstellations, lunar and deep space exploration, and national security imperatives such as Golden Dome," the company stated.
The announcement follows the successful NG-2 launch, which sent NASA’s ESCAPADE mission towards Mars and successfully landed the booster on a ship in the Atlantic. In an interview following NG-2, Blue Origin Chief Executive Dave Limp did not directly discuss these upgrades. Instead, he emphasized the importance of scaling up launch operations, including the production of expendable second stages. “We want to be very hardware rich next year,” he said, aiming for more than 20 second stages per year. “The question is, can we just get to an operational cadence? And to me, that’s the next step that we’re going to have to sit down with the teams about.” He didn't give any estimations of how many New Glenn launches the company is projecting for 2026. “But we’ll launch a bunch of times next year. I’m very confident of that.”